Meet my 2013 grade 5 learners!

by Liz Warden on February 21, 2013

For the first graded assignment in my English class I had the learners make “Who Am I?” books — an idea I borrowed from my City Year partner teacher from last year. Each of the learners got to decorate the front and the inside pages.

Each page had a different subject:

All About Me: Their names, age, date of birth, what their names mean in English, etc.

Friends: A “descriptive” paragraph about their best friend using adjectives to say what he or she looks like and what they like to do. I had to use sentence starters for this one because writing a real paragraph at this point would be far too hard for many learners.

Home: Write about their home and draw a map of how they get home from school

Favourites: Food and music they like and dislike

School: Favourite subjects, what their school looks like, what they do after school, whatever they decided to write about school

Goals: What they want to be when they grow up

This project took far longer than expected (I’m running on African time over here), but it helped me associate names with faces and learn the age/home life of my students. After they were done I had them present the book to me as a speaking task and I asked them simple questions about their books. I was able to knock out two of the “curriculum” examination standards for the first term with this assignment!

All the books!

Some were pretty funny, like this one:

Hmmmm… guess someone doesn’t like to eat shark?

Now, meet my grade 5 2013 English learners! Favourite thing they’ve asked me so far? “Miss, do you have a mom and dad?” “Miss, do you have a baby?”

Amanda, age 10

Asanda, age 11

Ayanda, age 11

Bongikosi, age 11

Buhle, age 11

Dineo, age 12

Fezile, age 10

Khanyisile, age 11

Kwamukelo, age 12

Lethukuthula, age 12

Linda, age 11

Lindokuhle,age 11

Mthobisi, age 14

Ndudzo, age 14

Neliswa N., age 10

Neliswa Z., age 11

Nhkanipho D., age 12

Nhlakanipho, age 13

Nhlonipho, age 12

Nqobile, age 12

Phumla, age 10

Sandile, age 12

Sinembali, age 11

Siphisihle, age ? He cannot read, write or talk, but he’s always smiling!